Conventional antenna diversity combining techniques are commonly implemented in the analog domain at either a radio frequency (RF) or a low intermediate frequency (IF) frequency, such as, for example, in mobile FM radio applications. Numerous techniques are conventionally used in the analog domain, such as, for example, switch diversity, maximum ratio diversity, and equal power combining, to implement antenna diversity combining. Although difficult to implement in the analog domain, generally these methods work well as long as each antenna signal does not suffer from strong adjacent channel interference. However, in modern satellite radio broadcasting systems, conditions are often such that strong co-channel interference can exist. This can be due to the disparity in signal level between a given channel receiving a satellite signal and a near frequency terrestrial signal (either “friendly” or “unfriendly”). This often results in poor results from such analog combining.
What is thus needed in the art is an alternative implementation of antenna diversity combining that is easy to implement and that can overcome or ameliorate the problems of such prior art systems and techniques.